So this is Christmas. And, just like in John Lennon’s immortal song, we can all ask ourselves: what have we done? More importantly: what can we do to live and transmit the real spirit of Christmas? How can we reconcile the religious and theological symbols of Christmas with the secular rendition that modernity has introduced into this great feast?
What is the meaning of Christmas? Is it about giving and receiving gifts? Is it simply about getting together as a family to enjoy another holiday? Or savouring the delicious food prepared for us to make us happy?
Christian faith certainly shows us that Christmas is about being filled with God’s wonder and joy. It is about celebrating a unique event of great significance to our lives as Christians, a moment that has changed the human course of history entirely.
Christians celebrate the extraordinary reality of ‘God-with-us’ as powerfully represented by the birth of Jesus Christ.
Yet, even non-believers feel the need to celebrate. The holiday atmosphere, the bright lights, the partying and gift exchanging surely contribute to this, true. However, because Christmas is a time for reflection and an occasion to bring people together – including those separated by distances and, yes, even differences of various sorts – all, believers or not, tend to be inclined to look within and allow themselves to be carried by the Christmas spirit.
That spirit may mean different things to different people but it still serves its purpose to break barriers and reach out to others in solidarity, even if not everybody would be willing to acknowledge it.
The spirit of Christmas is contagious.
As Christians, but also as human beings, we need to ask ourselves whether we can imitate Christ’s outstanding generosity by endorsing and promoting gestures that demonstrate solidarity and acceptance of the poor and the needy. Is this not the real meaning of Christmas, irrespective of what one believes in?
Just look at the lyrics of Lennon’s super hit: Christmas is for weak and for strong, for rich and the poor ones, for black and for white, for yellow and red ones.
The meaning and ultimate message the late former Beatle wants to convey is right at the very end: war is over, if you want it, war is over, now.
Lennon and Yoko Ono may have had a particular war in mind when they wrote the lyrics in the beginning of the 1970s. Indeed, many considered it as a protest song against the Vietnam War. But we all have our own ‘wars with individuals, with institutions, with systems, with races, with ideas, with ideologies... We are blessed in this country in that many of the afflictions that cause so much pain and division elsewhere are not present here, which does not mean that we do not have our crosses to bear and our divides to bridge.
That is what it really means to ‘be good’ in Christmas. It goes well beyond donating money to charity, however noble such a gesture is. The Maltese are generous and that generosity will surely be celebrated again on Thursday during L-Istrina. That is so fulfilling and so rewarding and the Maltese have continuously excelled.
There is another challenge we Maltese face and in which many of us still fail miserably: that is hosting and helping irregular migrants until their fate is sorted.
A very happy Christmas to all... including the migrants we host.